After International Space Station Retires, What Comes Next?

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The first long-duration crew arrived at the International Space Station in 2000. Since then, the ISS has had over 250 people visit the orbiting platform, with that number continuing to grow as more missions launch to the station.

"We're not done yet," Gatens said. "We're trying to get everything we can out of the International Space Station this decade. In fact, we're in what we like to think of as the golden era, or the decade of results. Many incredible scientific and technological results [are] still coming out of station. We'll continue to do that through 2030 and after that, we're preparing to transition to commercially owned and operated space stations."

As the transition between the ISS and commercial space stations begin, Gatens said she is hopeful that several commercial platforms will be in low-Earth orbit. As the end of the decade nears, Gatens said commercial companies are beginning to submit their station proposals to NASA.

Gatens said while the ISS stands as an important symbol to her, the ISS and these future commercial stations fall in line with NASA's main objectives: exploration, science and research in low-Earth orbit.

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